The Sixth Commandment: Compress the Selling Cycle Time

A fast “no” is better than a slow “yes”
by James “Alex” Alexander, Ed.D.

Selling professional services is about building relationships, creating trust and painting intangible concepts so that the prospect feels comfortable enough to move forward. All these components require time, and time is a precious commodity in selling services. So when one reads the directives of traditional selling prose such as: “Strike while the iron is hot! Go for the close! Embrace resistance statements and turn lemons into lemonade!” an appropriate queasiness in the stomach follows.

Simple admonishments to “go get ‘em” aren’t nearly enough to close business in complex selling situations. Left alone without a structured business development process, sales opportunities can string out the selling cycle to months or even years.

Furthermore, I am always amazed at the time, effort and organizational frenzy that often accompany sales efforts that should not be attempted in the first place. How often has your organization’s scarce resources been misspent trying to get projects that, on analysis, were never within the realm of possibility? Or worse, how often have you gotten the business on projects that could never profitably meet client expectations? You know the result — customers from Hell!

Tools and processes are required to systematically compress sales cycle time by (1) qualifying good business, (2) following a selling process and (3) using key events to both drive and confirm account interest.

Qualifying good business

I have assisted numerous services clients to define ideal business, then work through and create a qualifying checklist of the specific factors most important to size up good business potential. This is a powerful approach to compressing the selling cycle time, as you can quickly and objectively compare business opportunities using a common quality standard. Use the checklist in Figure 1 to visualize key accounts or prospective clients you have targeted and assess how qualified they are. I think the results may surprise you.

Keep in mind that the higher your overall score, the better position you will be in to get the business, and the shorter the sales cycle time. If your overall score is low — move on! Focus your limited resources where they will yield the greatest return. Ride a winner and cut a loser short.

Selling sin: Praying that low probability prospects will suddenly change their entire decision-making criteria and miraculously buy your offerings. Miracles may happen, but the odds aren’t good!

Using key events to compress selling cycle time

Although every services sales situation is different, there are some tried-and-true key events that sellers of professional services successfully use to compress the selling cycle time.

The key question to ask yourself every time you think about a prospect is: What is the most appropriate key event, i.e., the biggest commitment that the prospect might make at this time that will lead to the sale? Note that I said, “What action the prospect will take,” not actions you do. There is a big difference in the focus. For example, consider the following five potential prospect commitments that might be key events for you:

1.  Signing a letter of intent*. This key event is an informal but usually psychologically binding commitment that prospects put in writing to demonstrate the circumstances under which they will move forward on a project.

More details will be needed, but the prospects have indicated their commitment to your ideas, assuming that the details can be worked out. It requires prospects to think through and establish their own buying criteria, which can be highly beneficial to the seller and will shape the direction to pursue.

This powerful agreement is an excellent way to qualify very early in the buying/selling cycle the prospect’s seriousness. Advancing from a letter of intent to a formal contract should not be a difficult process if the document contains scope, expected outcomes, investment considerations and joint accountabilities that each party considers acceptable.

I advance this idea very early in situations where I sense that the prospects may be kicking tires or pretending to be economic buyers when they are not.

*Note that I sometimes call a letter of intent a “talking paper,” if my perception of prospects is that they may react negatively to the term “letter of intent.” Certain personalities and certain cultures find the term too aggressive.

2.  Visiting an executive briefing center (EBC). Getting a prospect to visit your EBC (brick-and-mortar facility), where your organization can involve the prospect actively through simulations, presentations and anticipated future experiences, is a powerful key event. Examples of this: “A Day in the Life of an ERP Implementation,” “The Supply-Chain Process of the Future,” or whatever is appropriate for your services in helping to make the invisible become visible for your prospect.

By having prospects get their hands dirty, you help them feel more secure about the services you are trying to sell. You also help them see the potential benefits and understand the risks applicable to their unique situation. Prospects willing to take a day (or more) of their valuable time to do this are definitely interested. Similarly, any prospect not willing to take this step should be questioned as to “prospect quality” and possibly should be dropped, or at least de-emphasized, in the sales pipeline.

3.  Structuring a pilot. A pilot, or proof of concept, is a small demonstration that allows prospects to test the water in their own business before making the deep-dive commitment of significant time, money and hassle. A pilot allows prospects to extensively evaluate your offering before going forward. Prospects can opt out of going forward if they are not satisfied with the results, thereby keeping risks within control and financial obligations within reason.

For example, if you sell services training and sense that the prospect is hesitant to commit to an entire implementation, offer a pilot workshop as a key event. The prospect makes a commitment to you, and therefore, you block the competition. If you perform up to expectation, the larger commitment will be a natural outcome.

A note of caution, however, is that you must determine if it is truly necessary to conduct a pilot. Depending on your business, this could be a considerable investment for your organization. Try to drive other key events if they can lead to the same outcome. Your objective is to use resources in the most effective and efficient manner.

4.  Conducting a mini-assessment. Many services organizations use an assessment vehicle as a key event to enable the seller to enter the prospect’s environment. The goal of an assessment is to gather relevant information quickly to better understand the client’s needs, issues and challenges. Prospects are committing the time of the organization’s people as well as demonstrating trust in you by sponsoring you inside their organization.

If you charge for the assessment and the prospect agrees to this, you are getting a strong commitment. However, some consulting organizations conduct complimentary assessments with the condition that they share the results only with key executives in an interactive meeting. They consider this a part of the sales cost.

Also, they will be confident in their ability to sell more business if they can get in front of the right people to demonstrate their prowess and offer answers to important prospect issues. Some services organizations charge full price for the assessment and consider this an important offering in their services portfolio.

However you choose to approach assessments, you must be clear about your business objective. Ideally, the value of an assessment is in creating a list of issues and recommendations for clients so that selecting one or more of your recommendations is the next step in the sales cycle. Assessments are powerful key events because you receive their permission to “see all the things in their closet” and be closer to the other decision-makers who often will have a say in going forward with an engagement.

5.  Getting an introduction to others. Seldom is there only one buyer of professional services. Once you understand the decision-making process and the key people involved, a simple way to test the water is to find out if your contact will commit to the key event of arranging a meeting with you and the others involved in buying.

Don’t ask permission to contact other people; ask your contact to schedule the meetings for you. If your prospect is reluctant, it is a red flag that you should rethink the opportunity or your approach to the account. If you can’t interface with the decision-makers and influencers, your opportunity for a sale is slim. Move on to the next prospect and use your resources where they will be most effective.

The road to more, better and faster sales

Positioning the right key events in your selling cycle is a necessary part of an effective services sales process. Understanding this and determining ahead of time which key events you will suggest to your prospect will help to compress your overall sales cycle time and lower the cost of sales dramatically, making your organization more profitable and you more successful.

The five best practices for compressing the sales cycle time

• Conduct a focus group of your best sellers to conduct post-mortems of successful and unsuccessful sales to discover the true sales cycle time. Pick the participants’ brains to uncover the key events that most consistently either advance the sale or get in the way.
• Establish a “go/no go” qualifying checklist. Take the findings from your information gathering to decide whether or not to pursue this business.
• Allocate resources to prospective accounts according to their probability of success.
• Have a clear understanding of the account’s situation and the business issues and personal wins of the people you will talk to.
• Make it easy to buy — Position a low-investment big-return offering as the first step to test the seriousness of the prospect.

You can compress the sales cycle time. Follow the advice above and reap the benefits of more, better and faster sales.

Good selling!

This is the sixth article in a 10-part series on the 10 commandments of selling services — visit the link to read previous articles.

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About James “Alex” Alexander

Alexander is founder of Alexander Consulting, a management consultancy that helps companies create and implement professional services strategies for product companies. Contact him at 239-671-0740, alex@alexanderstrategists.com or visit www.alexanderstrategists.com.

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